


Spill Your Secrets

by Eternal_Love_Song



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, Thor (Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Assassins & Hitmen, Alternate Universe - Human, F/M, First Meetings, Lokane Gift Exchange 2017, lokane - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-16
Updated: 2018-01-16
Packaged: 2019-03-05 17:10:43
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,616
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13392414
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Eternal_Love_Song/pseuds/Eternal_Love_Song
Summary: Jane has a secret that could cost her her life. Loki wants to know what it is.





	Spill Your Secrets

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Liana_Slane](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Liana_Slane/gifts).



> For whatever reason, it seemed not to be revealing itself, so I re uploaded. I hope you like!

Loki was a petty man. The kind of man that would cheat and steal for tricks, that lied as easily as some people breathed, and didn't lose a wink of sleep in the morning. He was being paid a lot of money to do little more than slip a pill into a drink. It was something that he'd done before and would no doubt do again. As long as the result was the same, it really didn't matter whether or not Loki was even the one to do it. Loki wasn't the only assassin in town, after all, and he had been dragging his feet on this assignment. There was nothing to stop Loki from taking credit for the death, regardless of how it happened.

And yet, when he saw another dropping a pill into his target's drink, Loki's first move was to sabotage the effort.

Loki had perfected the art of casually ruining things for others. He walked past his target, swinging his arms with affected carelessness and knocking the glass from the table. The girls standing around the table jumped back away from the mess and Loki pretended to have a similar shocked expression. "Oh my. I am so very sorry." He offered a handkerchief to one of the girls. "I hope I didn't stain your dress?"

"No, it's fine." The target inspected herself, running her hands over her gown a few times. "You only got my shoes." She smiled, perfectly polite, perfectly friendly, and patently awkward.

The woman stuck out like a sore thumb to Loki. She looked uncomfortable in formal wear, her movements stiff and her smile small and wavering since he'd first laid eyes on her. Her dress was long, past her knees but not to the floor, and she was obviously uncomfortable in her heels. She looked down a little every time she took a step, trying to watch her feet. The woman had pale skin that would bruise easily and short brown hair. 

"Thanks, man." Her... friend? associate? said as she took the proffered handkerchief. She blotted at her dress a few moments before muttering, "I'll have to go to the bathroom to get this out."

"I am truly sorry," Loki repeated, making his voice as contrite as possible.

"It's alright," She said. "I'll be right back, Jane."

"Do you want me to come with you?" Jane asked, forehead furrowing with worry.

"No, I got it." The woman scrutinized Loki for a moment. "Keep her company while I'm gone. It's the least you can do."

"Certainly," Loki answered. They both watched her go. Once she was out of sight, Loki extended a hand to Jane. "May I have this dance?" He asked her. Loki was far too curious not to want to learn more about this woman. From everything he'd seen, this woman was basically unremarkable. Reasonably attractive perhaps, but not dangerous, not suspicious, and certainly not someone that needed to be killed.

"I'm not very good at dancing," She answered sheepishly, tucking a lock of her hair behind her ear.

"I promise not to be offended if you step on my shoes," Loki told her. 

"I suppose it can't hurt," She relented.

He lead her to an empty place on the dance floor and began to slowly sway with her. He was careful not to move too closely her, not wanting to frighten her off. His words would be enough of a shock, after all. "Miss Foster," He said, feeling her stiffen in his arms and falter in her steps. He continued tugging her in their dance and she followed his lead reluctantly. "Or would you prefer that I call you Jane?"

"Who are you?" She asked him with wide eyes. They were actually lovely and he wouldn't mind seeing them light up with happiness. Thinking about it, in all the research he'd done of her, he rarely saw her smile. She was always hard, focused, and serious. He thought it would be a good look on her, seeing her carefree. Not that he was going to inspire such a thing. People were rarely happy to see an assassin.

He grinned at her, which he was certain would not put her at ease, but that wasn't the point of the gesture anyway. His smile was sharp and threatening, usually putting people on edge regardless of his intentions. He only needed to show that he was at ease, to appear playful. It tended to cause people to loosen their tongues, whether as an anger response to his cheer or because they were pulled in by his charisma. He wouldn't complain about the effect his smile on had people, he would just it to it's full effect. "My name is Loki," He told her. "I was hired to kill you."

She stopped in her tracks, expression becoming fearful. Her eyes darted around in panic, looking for exits he assumed, and she tried to pull away from him, but he held tightly to her hands.

"No, no, don't run," He whispered gently. "I will not kill you, if it places you at ease." He was pretty sure that it wouldn't. It rarely did, even when he was telling the truth. Still, he made the effort.

"What do you want?" She asked. She didn't relax, but she did become more firm. Drawing her confidence to her like a cloak, though the fear lingered obviously in her eyes.

It seemed that their dancing was at an end, but he refused to let her go, lest she run and bring attention to them. "Forgive me," He began. "I have been following you for quite some time and you seem like a remarkably normal woman. You don't have any obvious vices, you seem like a kind enough person, you aren't having any untoward affairs, and yet..." He pulled her closer. "And yet someone wishes you dead, Miss Foster. Could you possibly tell me why?"

"I don't think I should be telling you anything," She responded, glaring at him. He always enjoyed the ones that could blaze in the face of fear. 

Loki chuckled and pulled away slightly. "Fair enough." He tried to move her back into a dance and was only mildly surprised when she acquiesced. What a delightful creature Jane Foster was shaping up to be! "Though I am not the only one out for you life."

"What?" Her eyes widened again, her steps faltering, but they didn't stop.

"That drink I knocked over? Someone intended to poison you with it. I saved your life," He told her. "The least that you could do is tell me what a lady such as yourself could have done to earn enough ire to warrant such extreme methods." It was the question that burned most fiercely in his mind. Ordinary women didn't dance with assassins and have bounties placed on their head, after all.

Jane looked away from him. She bit her lip, clearly debating how to answer him. Loki waited. Patience had always been his strong suit, especially in the face of his own desires. "My work isn't always...appreciated..." She answered vaguely.

"You've got me intrigued," He told her. And it was very much true. She was quickly becoming a mystery that he longed to unwrap. "I thought you were an astrophysicist. I can't imagine that being a very dangerous line of work."

Jane bit her lip again, the action taking far more of his attention than it should. When he met her eyes again, she asked, "You really want to know?"

"Oh yes." His voice was practically a purr. Loki loved untangling a good mystery.

"I'll tell you if you do something for me." The worry in her eyes had mostly abated. There was a wonderful fierceness to her gaze.

Loki raised an eyebrow. "And what do you propose, my dear?"

"Be my bodyguard."

Loki's eyes widened with surprise. "That is not what I was expecting."

"You stopped one person from killing me. It shouldn't be too difficult for you to keep doing so," Jane told him. There was the confidence she displayed when working. This was not a timid woman, even in the face of her own potential death. 

"I saved your life because I am selfish," Loki told her. "I didn't want anyone else to kill my target before I could. And I didn't want you to die before I had the opportunity to figure out why you should."

"This way, you'll get to know first hand," She told him. She seemed to have regained her footing in the conversation and there was a determined look in her eyes.

Slowly, a smile spread over his face. He was enjoying where this was going more and more. "Your opposition was paying me for my services."

"You seem like the kind of person to consider knowledge as a valid type of payment," Jane told him. Was he obvious? Or was she just observant?

Loki was starting to really like this woman. "Are you willing to risk your life on that?" He asked. Mostly out of a sense of playful teasing, but there was a real warning in voice. She would be placing herself in his hands, after all. That couldn't, shouldn't, be ignored or glossed over.

"Yes." She didn't waver in her answer, but her gaze was searching. She thought she'd figured him out, but she was still being cautious. Loki liked it. Loki liked it a great deal. Loki would say that he even liked her. "Well, Miss Foster, you have a deal."

She smiled, triumphant but not smug. "Good. Thank you...Loki."

He pressed a kiss to the back of her hand. "I look forward to learning your secrets," He told her.


End file.
